Startup Funding in Portugal for an MVP: What Is Open and What Has Closed

As of 20 October 2026, no Portuguese voucher or grant aimed at early-stage founders is open. The StartUP Voucher closed in August 2026, and the PRR Vouchers for Startups, the one scheme that paid a fixed €30,000 that could go on external product development, closed in April 2025. What remains is administrative and residence support (the startup status and the Startup Visa), equity from Portugal Ventures (whose calls are all shown as closed), and Portugal 2030 investment calls that are built for established SMEs rather than for an MVP.

That is not the answer most founders want, but it is the accurate one, and it saves you planning a build around money that is not there. This page sets out what each programme is, its status today, and what its rules say about paying an outside or foreign development team. It is orientation, not financial or legal advice. For the wider picture, see the European MVP funding hub and EU-wide funding for startups.

At a glance

StartUP Voucher

Status: closed. IAPMEI's page for the 2025-2026 edition shows the notice as "candidaturas encerradas" (applications closed). The third phase, StartUP Voucher Innovate, took applications until 25 August 2026. Nothing on the page announces another round.

Who it was for. According to IAPMEI, young graduates up to 29 who are not working, studying or in training, with no other income, living in the Norte, Centro or Alentejo regions, with a project at the idea stage. Lisbon, the Algarve and the islands were outside its area. Teams had two to five promoters, and up to two of them could receive the grant.

What it paid. €900 a month for nine months per grant holder, two interim awards of €1,500, and a €2,000 completion award paid after the founder creates their own job, according to the programme FAQ.

Conditions. Participants had to be followed by a mentor from the Rede Nacional de Mentores and incubated in an incubator accredited by the Rede Nacional de Incubadoras. The support cannot be combined with other support of the same kind.

What it means for an MVP. It pays the founder, not a supplier. There is no published list of eligible costs because the founder is not buying services with it. If it returns, it buys you nine months to work on the idea; the build budget would come from elsewhere.

Vouchers for Startups: new digital and technological products (PRR)

Status: closed. Startup Portugal's page says "These Calls are now closed". The last call ran from 17 March 2025 to 14 April 2025, or until the budget ran out. On 31 October 2025 the original notice was republished for a fifth time, but only to say funded projects must be "concluídos no máximo até 30 de junho de 2026" (completed by 30 June 2026 at the latest). That was a deadline extension for existing projects, not a new call.

It is worth describing because it is the closest Portugal has come to a voucher that pays for an MVP, and the Recovery and Resilience Plan that funded it ends in 2026.

What it paid. According to the 2025 notice, a fixed €30,000 per beneficiary at 100%, as de minimis aid, paid as €5,000 pre-financing, a €20,000 advance and €5,000 at the end.

Who could apply. SMEs with IAPMEI's electronic SME certification, in business for less than ten years, with a registered technology or knowledge activity code, and with a project not started before applying. The procedure was in Portuguese ("A língua do procedimento é a língua portuguesa").

Eligible costs. Technical staff (up to 75% of costs); "aquisição de serviços externos especializados" (specialised external services), with product and service development, marketing, consultancy and digitalisation of business processes given as examples; equipment and software licences; intellectual property; and a flat 15% for indirect costs.

Startup status (Lei 21/2023)

Status: available on request. This is a recognition, not a call. According to Startup Portugal, a company qualifies if it is incorporated in Portugal, is under ten years old, has fewer than 250 employees and turnover below €50 million, is not a spin-out of or majority-held by a large company, and meets one further condition: ANI recognition as an innovative company with high growth potential, a completed venture capital round, or investment from Banco Português de Fomento. Without one of those, a company can ask Startup Portugal for a prior declaration, which the page says takes 30 working days.

A board member or lawyer applies through the gov.pt portal, and the page gives five working days for the analysis. The status gives access to tax rules, including the stock-option regime, which the page describes as a single effective personal income tax rate of 14% charged on liquidation.

What it means for an MVP. No cash. It matters later, when you hire and offer equity.

Startup Visa and Tech Visa

Startup Visa. For entrepreneurs who live outside the Schengen Area. According to Startup Portugal's summary, applicants must be over 18, have no debts to Social Security or the Tax Authority and no criminal record, hold €5,146.80 per person in a bank account, and show potential to reach more than €325,000 a year in turnover or assets five years after incubation. They must get a quote from, and sign a contract with, an IAPMEI-certified incubator; IAPMEI then assesses the project. The IAPMEI page shows the 2025 call for incubators to be certified as closed, with a certified list dated 23 January 2026. It shows no suspension of entrepreneur applications, but it does not state that they are open either, so confirm with IAPMEI's Startup Visa team before you plan around it.

Tech Visa. A certification that lets companies incorporated in Portugal hire highly qualified non-EU staff, according to Startup Portugal. It is for hiring, not funding.

Neither pays for development. Both are relevant if you are an international founder setting up in Portugal.

Portugal 2030 and COMPETE 2030

The open mainland calls are not startup vouchers.

• SICE Inovação Produtiva (MPr-2026-6) is listed as open for SMEs with organised accounts across the mainland, with maximum co-financing of 60% in Norte, Centro and Alentejo, 50% in the Algarve and 40% in Lisbon, according to the COMPETE 2030 notice page. An update dated 30 September 2026 extends the deadline to 30 October 2026 at 17:00, but another section of the same page still says 30 September. It funds initial investment in an innovative activity, such as a new establishment or a fundamental change in process. It is designed for companies making a productive investment, not for an idea-stage founder.
• STEP Inovação Produtiva calls were published on 1 October 2026 and close on 4 January 2027, for companies in Norte, Centro, Alentejo and, for one notice, the Algarve, according to Portugal 2030. Rates and eligible costs are in the notice documents.
• Regional calls for new businesses ("Empreendedorismo Qualificado") appear in the annual plan of notices for Alentejo and Algarve, and Vale Inovação-type vouchers for the Azores. The plan shows them as approximate forecasts, not open calls, and none covers Lisbon.

If one of the regional calls opens and you are in its region, read its formal notice for eligible costs and supplier rules; the forecast pages do not give them.

Portugal Ventures and other closed programmes

• Portugal Ventures invests from pre-seed to Series A in startups headquartered in Portugal, with tickets up to €6 million, according to its site. Its calls page shows all ten listed calls as "candidaturas encerradas" (applications closed).
• Vale Incubação was a Portugal 2020 measure. IAPMEI's archive page says no call is running, and the last notice was 23/SI/2018. We found no Portugal 2030 successor under that name.
• Empreende XXI, run by IEFP with Startup Portugal, shows "applications are closed".
• Vouchers for Incubators and Accelerators (PRR) is closed, and was for incubators rather than startups (Startup Portugal).

Can this money pay an outside development team, or one in another country?

Scheme by scheme, from the official rules:

• Vouchers for Startups (closed). Yes, an outside team was an eligible cost in principle: the 2025 notice lists "serviços externos especializados" including product and service development. The notice excludes contracts through intermediaries or consultants paid as a percentage of the funding, and costs that are not reasonable "face às condições de mercado" (given market conditions). The original 2022 notice adds that purchases should not favour specific suppliers and that technological neutrality must be kept. There is no approved-supplier list, and the notice sets no rule on where the supplier is located. It does not mention suppliers outside Portugal or the EU at all. Because the call is closed, the question only matters if a successor opens; read that notice's rules rather than assuming these carry over.
• StartUP Voucher (closed). No. It pays the founder a stipend and awards. The only providers it names are a mentor from the national mentors network and an RNI-accredited incubator.
• Startup Visa. No funding. The incubator you contract must be IAPMEI-certified; the visa rules say nothing about who builds your product.
• Startup status and Tech Visa. No funding, so the question does not arise.
• Portugal 2030 calls (SICE, STEP, regional). The notice pages we read do not set out external-service or supplier-location rules. The official guidance does not say; ask the programme before you commit. For COMPETE 2030 notices, that means the managing authority through its notice contact or the Linha dos Fundos; for regional calls, the regional programme named on the notice.

Where a rule is silent on supplier location, that is not a guarantee. Programmes funded by the EU usually require invoices, proof of payment and prices in line with the market, and some ask for several quotes. Easify invoices in euros from its registered entity in India, which means the supplier is outside Portugal and outside the EU, and the reverse charge normally applies for VAT. If a programme requires a Portuguese or EU supplier, we do not qualify, and you should know that before you apply, not after.

How to plan your MVP budget around it

Since nothing founder-specific is open, the practical plan in Portugal today is to budget the MVP without a voucher and treat any future call as a bonus.

1. Do not start costs you hope to claim. The Vouchers for Startups notice required that the project had not started before the application, and that is a common rule in Portugal 2030 calls. If you want to keep a future call open, sign nothing for that work until you have read its notice.
2. Get a written scope and a fixed price. Calls that fund external services usually want to see what you are buying and that the price is reasonable. A scope document with deliverables, a timeline and a fixed price answers both. Our €900 MVP Scoping Sprint produces that, and the €900 is credited against the build if you build with us. That is general advice: no Portuguese scheme requires or accepts our document specifically.
3. Collect comparable quotes. If a call asks for market-price evidence, two or three quotes for the same scope are the simplest proof. Our 12 questions for choosing an MVP agency help you compare like with like.
4. Size the first version to your own money. Our MVPs typically cost €5,000 to €25,000 and take four to twelve weeks; MVP costs in Europe explains what moves the price.
5. Plan for Portuguese. Programme procedures, notices and many applications are in Portuguese. Budget for the time, or for help, to write in it.

Products we build are deployed to EU data-centre regions. Our engineering team is in India, so if your privacy notice or a programme asks where personal data is processed, say so accurately.

Spain's ENISA loans and Kit Digital work differently; see startup grants in Spain.

Scheme details checked against official sources on 20 October 2026. Schemes change; confirm with the programme before applying.